I had a chat to one of band board members last week who was also concerned about the new rules. For our areas contest it seems like they (organisers?) are applying for a body of persons license to cover all the children involved who have performed less than 4 days in the last 6 months. However once a child reaches 4 days in 6 months it would appear (in Oxfordshire where we live) that an 11 page form needs to be completed for every child for every performance. The form needs to be accompanied by photos and copies of birth certificates and submitted in advance.
Child performance and stage licences | Oxfordshire County Council
https://www2.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms...nandfamilies/youngpeople/applicationform.docx
In addition if parents are not present throughout the performance there is a requirement to have registered chaperones present throughout. The form to be registered is 14 pages long but luckily only needs to be completed once per chaperone. Apparently there was some question about whether a parent playing in the same band as the child was allowed to be considered "supervising" or whether a chaperone would be needed - not sure how much fact that was based on.
I've not seen any cost associated with any of these forms but its going to add a high level of administrative overhead, our band might need 12 such forms completed for every performance as I think most of the children in our band will hit 4 performances in 6 months pretty quickly in either our band or any other performances they are in (ours have already exceeded it by participating in the local panto).
Hopefully that adds a bit more information around the reasons for such a petition - I'm not sure that an exemption for just brass bands is appropriate, but overall it does seem like this whole process adds a lot of admin to brass banding and other performing activities.